Montgomery County district court judge gives first order releasing sex offender into community

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1-30--2015 Texas:

A 40-year-old Fort Worth man civilly committed as a sexually violent predator will be allowed to live at a private residence after a Montgomery County state district court judge’s decision Friday.

This is the first time 435th District Court Judge Michael Seiler has agreed to release an offender convicted in the state’s controversial sexually violent predator program since first taking the bench in 2008.

Seiler has been ordered off 11 civil commitment cases since last September, due to either impartiality or personal bias against the alleged predators.

Part of the impetus for defense attorneys seeking Seiler’s recusal have been what they call “extrajudicial” comments concerning the offenders and the judge’s touting of never having released an offender into the community.

The decision Friday to release Erik Joel Games, however, comes with the recommendation of a case manager with the state’s Office of Violent Sex Offender Management.

Minnesota sex offenders prepare for civil commitment court battle

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1-30-2015 Minnesota:

A trial begins Feb. 9 in Minnesota federal court that could determine the future of the state's sex offender treatment program.

More than 700 civilly committed sex offenders are suing the state in a class action federal lawsuit that alleges, among other things, that it is unfair and unconstitutional to keep them locked up indefinitely. They also allege the program does not provide adequate treatment.

The Department of Human Services runs the Minnesota Sex Offender Treatment Program (MSOP). Most MSOP clients were court-ordered to receive sex offender treatment after they finished serving their prison sentences in a process called civil commitment.

Offenders who are ordered into the program are confined to one of two MSOP treatment facilities -- Moose Lake or St. Peter. The treatment program was set up in the 1990s when current civil commitment laws went into effect, but it has been under fire for rarely letting anyone out until recently.

The program has been politically charged and Minnesota lawmakers have not come up with a bi-partisan legislative fix. Last session a proposal to address MSOP concerns made little headway at the legislature in the middle of an election season. This session it is still unclear whether lawmakers will take up the MSOP issue with the federal lawsuit still pending.

After sex offender moves in, Le Center ordinance would restrict where others live

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1-29-2015 Minnesota:

LE CENTER, Minn. — A small southern Minnesota city is considering barring some sex offenders from living near places where children gather.

The Mankato Free Press (http://bit.ly/1y9Rey7 ) reports a proposed ordinance in Le Center would prevent Level 3 sex offenders from living with 2,000 feet of places such as schools, libraries and day care centers.

The proposal came after a December public hearing to notify residents that a Level 3 offender, Robert Jeno, was moving to a group home in Le Center. The home is about 1,800 feet from a school, but the ordinance wouldn't be retroactive. He's the city's only offender at Level 3, which is assigned to those most at risk to reoffend.

Jeno spent more than 20 years in Minnesota's sex offender treatment program, and was discharged after a state Supreme Court panel ordered his release late last year.

Other cities in Minnesota have passed residency restrictions for sex offenders, including nearby Elysian this month. ..Source.. by Star Tribune

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Audit: Sex offender agency lacked budget, contract oversight

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1-28-2015 Texas:

The state agency tasked with supervising some of Texas' most violent sex offenders had almost no oversight of its contracts, budgeting and spending, according to a state auditor's report released Wednesday.

Auditors found the Office of Violent Sex Offender Management , the state agency which oversees Texas' troubled civil commitment program, lacked planning and oversight of about 54 contracts it held with vendors, according to the report. The agency paid about $7.5 million to various vendors between Sept. 2011 and May 2014.

Auditors also found the agency did not have a budgeting process to identify or plan for the services it provides or adequately ensure that funds would be available meet the program needs, nor did it have agreements in place to monitor vendors' performance.

Dayton proposes allocating $11 million to reform sex offender program

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1-27-2015 Minnesota:

Gov. Mark Dayton is recommending more than $11 million in state dollars go toward reform of the state’s controversial sex offender program.

The recommendation, part of Dayton’s proposed $42 billion budget unveiled Tuesday, includes allocating $.3 million in the 2016-17 biennium and $3.8 million in 2018-19 biennium to evaluate the treatment progress of the residents of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) and to move 50 of them to less-restrictive settings if they are approved. Nearly 700 residents are held indefinitely at treatment centers in Moose Lake and St. Peter. Only two people have been released from MSOP since it was established nearly 20 years ago.

The controversial program has long remained a hot potato for lawmakers and Gov. Dayton, who blame one another for failing to address problems with MSOP, whose policies were described by a federal judge as “draconian” and ordered the Legislature to take action or face court-ordered changes.

A federal trial is scheduled for Feb. 9 to determine the constitutionality of the program. ..Source.. by Abby Simons

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Montgomery County courts reallocate cases; 435th no longer receives new criminal filings

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1-27-2015 Texas:

Prosecutor says judge’s bias unproven

The reallocation of criminal cases filed in Montgomery County district courts resulted in the 435th state District Court receiving no additional criminal cases as of Oct. 1.

Director of Court Administration Nate Jensen said the board of judges in Montgomery County decided in September that the 435th would only hear civil commitment cases and violations of civil commitment.

The decision, however, is based on the courts specializing in certain types of cases rather than the flurry of defense motions granted for Judge Michael Seiler’s recusal in the 435th, Jensen said.

Seiler has been ordered off 11 civil commitment cases against alleged sexually violent predators since September, due to questioned impartiality or personal bias.

Seiler, whose $140,000 annual salary is paid by the state’s Comptroller of Public Accounts, still is presiding over civil commitment cases and felony criminal cases filed in the court before Oct. 1.

More recusal motions are pending.

The courts have been specializing cases since 2012.

The Latest Hypocrisy in SVP Expert Testimony

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1-26-2015 National:

The United States Constitution does not allow 'preventive detention' -- a much abused 18th century prerogative of royal power that was abhorrent to our founding fathers. We are meant to be a country of law, not arbitrary state power. No imprisonment on suspicion that someone might commit a crime and no keeping someone in prison beyond his allotted sentence just because someone thinks he might still be dangerous

Sexually Violent Predator laws in 20 states are an exception. Indefinite preventive detention in a psychiatric facility (really a prison in all but name) is permitted if the individual has committed a violent sexual crime and has a mental disorder that predisposes to its repetition. The US Supreme Court in a narrow 5-4 decision found this to be constitutional, but explicitly only if the perpetrator has a definite mental disorder that would distinguish him from the much more common opportunistic criminal rapist. No mental disorder, no preventive detention.

In an attempt to facilitate preventive detention under SVP commitment statutes, many state evaluators blatantly misused the inherently unreliable Paraphilia Not Otherwise Specified as a qualifying diagnosis in cases that involved no more than typical, opportunistic rape. Until recently, juries bought it -- unjustly committing common criminals to inappropriate psychiatric incarcerations.

This is now changing, especially since DSM-5 confirmed once again that rape is not a mental disorder (this is the fourth time DSM has rejected rape in 40 years). Paraphilia NOS is now widely recognized for the fake diagnosis it always was.

This should be the end of a sad epoch of incompetent expert testimony in SVP cases -- but it isn't. Undeterred by any respect for proper diagnostic practice, many state evaluators have come up with a new fake diagnosis, intended to convert ineligible common criminality into SVP-ready mental disorder. The same patients who before were routinely mislabeled Paraphilia NOS are now being mislabeled as Sexual Sadists.

Unlike rape, Sexual Sadism is an official DSM-5 diagnosis and, if properly diagnosed, is a legitimate qualifying mental disorder in SVP cases. Unfortunately, incompetent evaluators are now confusing the very specialized violence of sadism from the nonspecific violence of rape. The diagnosis of Sexual Sadism applies only to a tiny minority of rapists.

Texas sex-offender cases merit review

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1-25-2015 Texas:

The request by state Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, for a probe into the judicial activities of the chief enforcer of the state’s civil commitment program for sex predators warrants swift attention.

During the investigation by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, civil commitment cases pending before Judge Michael Seiler should be distributed among other judges.

Seiler, who was appointed judge of the 435th District Court when it was created in 2008, has exclusive control over the docket for the state’s troubled treatment program for violent sexual predators. An amendment in 2007 to the Texas sexually violent predator statute allows civil commitments to be tried in the county where the violence occurred or in Montgomery County where Seiler sits.

The growing number of requests for the recusal of Seiler from these cases and the number granted are indicative of a problem.

Inmate's release threatens Davenport safety

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1-24-2015 Iowa:

On January 9, 2015, the Seventh Judicial Citizen Review Board voted to support placing Ben Sanders, a repeat and violent rapist, back in Davenport.

In 1966, Ben Sanders was convicted of rape after breaking into a home, tying up a man and raping his wife. In 1980, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for breaking into a woman's home and raping her in front of her teenage son. In 1986, he was convicted of sex abuse and sentenced to 25 years in prison after attacking a woman while on work release.

Ben is one of several men currently being discharged from the Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders in Cherokee, Iowa. The Department of Corrections personnel are searching for an apartment for him in Davenport. The judicial system claims the Department of Corrections facility at 605 Main St., across from Davenport Central High School, is capable of treating and monitoring these sexual predators.

Rapist Will Live In Davenport; Victim Speaks Out

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1-23-2015 Iowa:

DAVENPORT, IA — 67-year-old Ben Sanders, a Sexually Violent Predator, is being released from the Civil Commitment Unit in Cherokee, Iowa, a sex offender treatment facility. Sanders is a repeat offender, and will soon be living in Davenport.

He has a long history of violence, dating back 50 years. In 1965, he broke into a woman’s home, tied up her husband and raped her. He was released less than a decade later in 1973. The same years, he was back behind bars after he broke into a home. The woman living there shot him three times. Then in 1980, while on a weekend furlough from prison, Sanders force his way into his neighbors house “expecting sex”, according to court records. Again in 1986, he was released from prison, but soon after was arrested again for raping another woman.

Sanders was declare a sexually violent predator in 2012. Since then, he has been at a treatment program for sex offenders in Cherokee.

There was a hearing Thursday at the Scott County Court House. The judge approved a release plan for Sanders’ that was written by the Civil Commitment Unit and the Department of Corrections. The judge says he will be released and approved to live in Davenport.

Unexpectedly, the first victim from 1965 was at the hearing. She testified, but said she heard about the hearing only after watching TV-6 at 10:00 p.m. Wednesday night. She says she was not notified of his release. The victim wants to remain anonymous but is speaking out to warn the public.

PLEASE NOTE: THE FOLLOWING DETAILS ARE DISTURBING.

“We had a light at the stairs and we seen this guy standing there.” The victim was upstairs with her husband when they saw Sanders. He tied up the victim’s husband and brought her downstairs. She says her three kids were in the house at the time. “He threw me on the couch, pointed the gun at my temple, raped me. He held the gun to my head all the time he was raping me.”

Release plan approved for sex offender

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1-22-2015 Iowa:

The 69-year-old woman can still feel the cold gun against her head nearly 50 years later.

The woman, then 20, was lying in bed with her husband the night of Sept. 2, 1965, when she saw a man who she thought was her brother-in-law standing at the top of the stairs. The man started to go back down the stairs, then turned around, walked into the bedroom and pointed a gun at the couple.

The intruder tied up her husband, took her down to the living room and raped her at gunpoint before fleeing.

Her three daughters — then 4, 2 and 3 months — were in the house at the time.

On the witness stand in a Scott County courtroom Thursday, her voice wavered when she said the word “rape.”

“I haven’t said that word all these years,” she said. “I just came out there years ago to say that I was a rape victim.”

The woman recounted the incident during a hearing for her attacker, Ben Sanders, who is seeking to be released from a long-term sex offender treatment facility known as the Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders in Cherokee, Iowa. The Quad-City Times does not name victims of sex offenses.

During a nearly hourlong hearing Thursday, District Judge John Telleen approved an amended release plan for Sanders, 67. He will remain at the civil commitment unit until he locates a housing arrangement that must be approved by Iowa Community-Based Corrections.

Once released, Sanders also must wear a GPS tracking device, stay away from drugs, alcohol, firearms and pornography and cannot have any unsupervised contact with minors.

Sen. Kathy Sheran: Key issues bring Mankato legislator to Capitol forefront

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1-21-2015 Minnesota:

Minnesota’s sex offender program. Child abuse. Safety concerns at the state security hospital in St. Peter.

Three key issues facing the 2015 legislative session will face tough political scrutiny in coming weeks. As Republicans and state DFLers try to negotiate compromise legislation, state Sen. Kathy Sheran, DFL-Mankato, is expected to play a critical role in those discussions.

None are simple. And with DFLers no longer controlling the Minnesota House of Representatives, the decision-making process becomes a bit more difficult, Sheran admits. Republicans hold a 71-to-63 majority in the House; DFLers still control the Minnesota Senate and have Gov. Mark Dayton.

But that doesn’t mean the two parties can’t come up with some significant legislation on these issues, according to Sheran. Her first bill of the 2015 legislation session is also one of her party’s top priorities, strengthening the state’s child protection system. And it’s received bipartisan support.

Sheran, chair of the Minnesota Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee, expects the bill (Senate File 4) to be considered before committee members this week.

But while the two parties will likely find compromise on the issues of child protection, Sheran notes that critical differences have surfaced in how DFLers and Republicans at the state Capitol want to address Minnesota’s controversial sex offender treatment program. Since August, when U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank voiced serious constitutional concerns with the program, Sheran has led legislative efforts to address the issue.

Re-commitment of sex offenders in Texas is unfair

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1-20-2015 Texas:

Sex offenders, especially child predators, are some of the most reviled people on Earth. And because of the nature of their crimes, the public generally wants them put away for a long, long time.

The question is: What’s long enough?

Texas, along with 19 other states and the District of Columbia, has decided that in many cases the time assessed by juries is insufficient. It has come up with a way to continue confining certain violent sex offenders even after they have completed their court-imposed sentences.

No matter what you may think about sex offenders, you have to see that keeping them under state supervision — in halfway houses and other “treatment” facilities — is a not-so-subtle way of extending their prison terms and is unjust.

Since 1999, the state has allowed for the “civil commitment” of those being released from prison after determining (through legal proceedings) that the individuals have a behavior abnormality that makes them likely to commit violent sexual crimes in the future.

Ostensibly, the re-commitment upon release from prison is for the purpose of the offender receiving treatment for the mental disorder, presumably with the idea that once that treatment is completed the person will be allowed to return to society.

But not one of the 360 men placed in civil commitment over the last 15 years has ever been released, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Limits on where sex offenders can live to come before Le Center council

PUBLIC HEARING: A public hearing on the designated predatory offender residency restrictions is set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 10 in the council chambers in the Le Center Municipal Building. Residents are invited to comment on the proposal during the hearing.

1-19-2015 Minnesota:

With a federal judge ready to rule on the fate of the Minnesota Sex Offenders Program, the Le Center City Council will next month consider rules that dictate where in town the state's most dangerous predatory offenders can live.

The council at its Jan. 15 meeting set a public hearing for a proposed ordinance that will keep Level 3 predatory offenders from living within 2,000 feet of places where children congregate, including schools, libraries and licensed child care centers.

The decision comes just weeks after convicted rapist Robert Jeno was released from MSOP to a group home in Le Center.

U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank has promised to rule by Feb. 16 on a lawsuit by hundreds of MSOP clients alleging the state's civil commitment program is unconstitutional and tantamount to a life sentence.

Though the 703 convicted sex offenders who have completed their sentences are being treated in the two MSOP locations (Moose Lake and St. Peter), the Minnesota Department of Human Services lists Jeno as the third person to be released in the program's current incarnation.

Sex offender outpatient program a small cost in big system

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1-17-2015 Nebraska:

For 23 years Caesar lived in an institution -- either prison or treatment center -- after being convicted of raping a woman in her apartment.

His options were limited. Someone else cooked his meals, told him when to get up, when to eat, when he could have visitors. He served his time.

And for the past year, he’s lived in Lincoln -- first in a halfway house, now in his own apartment. It's been a transition.

He’s had to learn how to cook dinner, how to shop for food, how to buy his own clothes and wash them. He’s had to learn to manage in a society that moved from typewriters to computers while he was behind bars. It hasn’t been easy for Caesar, whose real name isn't being used here.

He’s been fired from two jobs after others discovered he was on the sex offender list. He was hit by a car while riding his bike. He doesn’t always have money to purchase minutes for his cellphone -- the phone on which he's still trying to figure out how to set up voicemail.

But Caesar isn't whining. This is his reality as an ex-con with the sex offender label.

And he wants people to understand that one of the things keeping him sane, giving him hope, helping him manage his frustration and his behavior is a therapy program offered by Lincoln psychologist Mary Paine.

Caesar, 53, remembers the long walk home after he lost that first job, a good job. It was a cold night. He was angry, so angry. Losing his job was so unfair.

DA: Roslindale child predator civilly committed after jury finds him sexually dangerous

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Note: Commitment is based on a "legislative definition" not a "psychiatric definition," which means the legislature could confine anyone they disfavor by passing such a law..

1-19-2015 Massachusetts:

A sex offender from Roslindale previously convicted of manslaughter faces potential lifetime commitment at a secure facility after a jury on Jan. 16 found him to be sexually dangerous, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

After a three-day trial and about an hour of deliberations, a Suffolk Superior Court jury found Manuel Encarnacion, 43, of Roslindale, a sexually dangerous person under Ch. 123A of the Massachusetts General Laws, the DA said.

Judge Raffi Yessayan civilly committed Encarnacion to the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater for a period of one day to life. The commitment comes at the conclusion of Encarnacion’s state prison sentence for a conviction in Suffolk Superior Court for indecent assault of a child under 14 and assault and battery.

Under the sexually dangerous person statute, prosecutors may seek post-incarceration civil commitment for any person serving a sentence for certain sex offenses if a qualified examiner finds the defendant to be sexually dangerous. Though they are civil proceedings, prosecutors’ burden of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt, just as in criminal cases. If found to be sexually dangerous, the defendant is committed to a secure facility for a period of one day to life but may petition for release once a year.

Civil commitment case goes to Texas Supreme Court

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1-17-2015 Texas:

A man civilly committed by the state as a sexually violent predator is challenging an appeals court ruling which claimed that because he had alternatives for seeking release from commitment, the Montgomery County trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying his motion to delay the civil trial.

George Leander Coley filed with the Texas Supreme Court Wednesday the first case of the year from Montgomery County alleging the judicial decision-making process at the 9th Court of Appeals in Beaumont, which affirmed his civil commitment, did not line up with what he should expect under state law.

Coley contends his civil commitment trial proceeded despite deposition testimony from the state’s expert witness, Dr. Michael Arambula, who determined Corley suffered from a behavior abnormality that could change if Coley successfully completed the nine-month sex offender treatment program in prison.

Arambula testified, both in a December 2013 deposition statement and at the January 2014 trial, that his “working opinion” was that Coley’s behavior abnormality could change with treatment.

Texas: No room to house sex offenders after prison release

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1-16-2015 Texas:

Dozens of violent sex offenders are scheduled to be released from Texas prisons in the coming months but a state program designed to keep them off the streets has no place to house them, according to state officials.

Texas authorities have found that several state buildings that could provide housing, such as the former Price State Juvenile Correctional Facility in Beaumont, were transferred to local governments. The state now may need to lease them back.

Meanwhile, four halfway houses where more than 100 offenders are confined have notified the state Office of Violent Sex Offender Management that they want the men removed by the end of August, the Houston Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/1E7vaIr ).

Finding housing for the men is critical because state law dictates that offenders who have committed two or more violent sexual crimes and are deemed to be a continuing threat to society can be kept in state custody via a civil commitment program after completing their criminal sentences.

State program out of space to hold sex offenders

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1-16-2015 Texas:

AUSTIN - Six repeat sex offenders that Texas has deemed among its most dangerous are due to be freed from prison in the next month, and a state program designed to keep them off the streets is full.

..Source Sub Req.. by Mike Ward and Anita Hassan

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Shore Lawmakers: Sex Offenders in State Custody Should Have Wages Reduced

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1-15-2015 New Jersey:

A pair of Ocean County lawmakers say convicted sex offenders who are civilly committed, but not in prison, should be paid the same amount of money as those who are serving jail terms.

A bill proposed Thursday by Senator Jim Holzapfel and Assemblyman Greg McGuckin (both R-Ocean) would require civilly committed sexually violent predators to be paid the same rate as state inmates for work performed while in custody “to provide savings for taxpayers.”

Sex offenders may be civilly committed after serving prison terms to allow for further treatment or to reduce their potential to harm the public, the two legislators said in a statement. But while those serving time in state prisons are compensated for work their perform while in custody at a rate of $1.25 to $5 per day, earning an average of $2.33 per day, civilly committed offenders offenders at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center at Avenel are paid the state minimum wage, currently $8.38 per hour.

Pierce County lawmakers want released sex offenders sent back to county of origin

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1-15-2015 Washington:

Seven of eight state senators who represent Pierce County are teaming up to try to keep sex offenders released from McNeil Island from clustering in one place.

Lately, offenders have disproportionately gone from the island lockup to live in mainland Pierce County.

An analysis last summer by The News Tribune found the county had received 15 of the at least 41 detainees released from the Special Commitment Center since 2012, even though just three of the 41 originally were committed in Pierce.

Local lawmakers hope that trend will change, but they haven’t come up with a way to enforce their wish, as proposed legislation they introduced Wednesday makes clear.

“This is less a demand than it is a request,” said Sen. Jeannie Darneille, the Tacoma Democrat taking the lead. “It’s a process we’re asking the courts to go through in this bill.”

Turner: Make relocations of violent sex-offenders public

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1-14-2015 Texas:

AUSTIN – Local lawmakers would have to be given advance notice of any move by state officials to relocate violent sex offenders into new housing under a bill filed in the Texas House.

House Bill 678 by state Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, was the latest fallout from a controversy that erupted last springafter the Houston Chronicle revealed the secretive relocation of offenders in the state's civil-commitment program into residential neighborhoods in Houston and Austin.

The measure would require legislators be given 30 days' advance written notice of "a new
residence or facility that has not previously served as housing" for civil-commitment offenders supervised by the Office of Violent Sex Offender Management. The measure would cover both new construction and remodeled facilities.

Turner, a primary critic of the relocations last spring into his North Houston district, earlier had called for full public disclosure of such moves of the two-time sex offenders who are kept in state custody after completing their prison sentences because state officials deem they too dangerous to set free.

As part of the earlier fallout, most of the agency's top officials were forced out or quit amid an ongoing state audit and criminal investigation into contracting irregularities concerning a secretive plan to build a new center to house the offenders in rural Liberty County without public notice. ..Source.. by Mike Ward

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Revamp sex offender program

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1-13-2015 Texas:

The sex offenders who end up in Texas’ civil commitment program have all committed heinous, sickening crimes. They are pariahs.

All the more reason, then, for the state’s civil commitment program to be well run. That hasn’t been happening. Instead, the program to monitor sex offenders has been run in manic, pell-mell fashion. The upshot is this: Sex offenders haven’t been treated, and the public has been placed at greater risk.

Let’s start with the lack of treatment. As reported by Mike Ward and Anita Hassan of the Houston Chronicle, over the span of 15 years, no sex offenders have completed the state’s treatment program.

In that same time, more than 180 sex offenders have served their sentences, been placed in the program and then sent back to prison for violating rules. That’s more than half of all the sex offenders placed in civil commitment.

They are often sent back to prison for minor violations, such as being six minutes late to a halfway house. That violation put one sex offender back in prison for life.

Other minor violations have included yelling, missing therapy sessions and not updating a daily “thought journal.” Some of these offenders have included mentally disabled men who might not understand the rules they are supposed to follow.

Sentences ranged from two years to life. None went back to prison for new sex crimes.

Texas DPS most wanted sex offender Rubio caught

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1-12-2015 Texas:

BANDERA, Texas (AP) - A tip has led to the arrest of 1 of the Department of Public Safety's 10 Most Wanted Sex Offenders at a home in Central Texas.

DPS says 55-year-old James Anthony Rubio was captured in Bandera, about 40 miles northwest of San Antonio.

Rubio was released from prison in April 2012 after serving 20 years for sexual assault. Investigators say Rubio last September cut off his ankle bracelet monitor and fled from the Travis County Residential Center in Del Valle.

Rubio, who was caught Monday, had outstanding warrants for failure to register as a sex offender, failure to comply with sex offender civil commitment requirements and a federal warrant for sex offense.

His criminal history includes aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, rape, attempted rape and making a terroristic threat. ..Source.. by Fox4News.com

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Some CCUSO patients return to communities

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1-12-2015 Iowa:

Both the commitment process for patients at the Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders (CCUSO) at the Mental Health Institute campus in Cherokee and the release process are court directed, according to Amy McCoy, public information officer for the Iowa Department of Human Services.

Only a fraction of the inmates committed to CCUSO since the program started in 1998 have been granted supervised release to communities where they came from or other communities where they have found employment.

Anyone committed to CCUSO has completed a prison term for a predatory sexual felony and then in a separate legal proceeding, been committed to the CCUSO unit as at high risk to re-offend. There are currently six individuals released from the facility in Cherokee, the only CCUSO unit in the state. All have supervision and all remain on a sex offender watch list maintained by the state.

Sex offender attacks another resident at McNeil Island

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1-9-2015 Washington:

Attacker once slashed throat of South Hill rapist Kevin Coe in prison

OLYMPIA – A resident at the state’s Special Commitment Center for sex offenders who once gained notoriety for trying to kill Kevin Coe now faces the prospect of life imprisonment for attacking another resident at the McNeil Island facility.

Prosecutors charged Timothy Leon Cannon with assault this week for throwing scalding water into Robert Duncan’s face and then punching the partially deaf Duncan after he fell down.

Duncan suffered second-degree burns from the attack, an affidavit filed with the charges said.

Cannon allegedly told the staff it felt good to beat up a sex offender and said he wanted go back to prison “so I can be around some real convicts.”

Police: Sex offender threatens peer, violates probation terms

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1-9-2015 Virginia:

A Richmond woman convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual battery against minors is scheduled to appear in March in Chesterfield County Circuit Court after being found in violation of the terms of her probation.

Judge Frederick G. Rockwell III found that Rose Marie Spain, 48, was in violation of the terms of her probation based on a Sept. 11 report issued by Spain’s probation officer, Melissa Kiniry.

Court records indicate that Spain pleaded no contest on March 28, 2006, to separate counts of aggravated sexual battery against two girls under the age of 13 with the offenses occurring between May 1 and Dec. 31, 2004.

Under the terms of her plea agreement, Spain was sentenced to 20 years in prison on each offense, with all but five years and six months of the total 40-year sentence suspended. She also was placed on supervised probation for an indefinite period following her release. Court records indicate that she was incarcerated following her arrest on May 29, 2005, and released on Feb. 15, 2011, to Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie for civil commitment as a sexually violent predator.

In her probation violation report, Kiniry stated that in August, Spain was suspended from sex offender treatment groups for one month.

“Ms. Spain violated group confidentiality by repeating statements made during treatment groups by a peer,” Kiniry wrote, adding that while on suspension, Spain also verbally threatened the peer, a woman who was also undergoing sex offender treatment.

Convicted rapist in court for attacks on and threats against other sex offenders.

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1-8-2015 Washington:

PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — Timothy Cannon is a convicted rapist who once claimed he would kill other rapists and child molesters and make videos of the murders. He once tried to kill notorious South Hill rapist Kevin Coe, and threatened to rape a relative of Green River killer Gary Ridgway.

Now Cannon has been charged with assaulting a fellow sex offender undergoing treatment on McNeil Island. Cannon, 47, is accused of attacking convicted child molester Robert Danforth, described as a mentally handicapped man with a history of sex crimes in September.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Cannon was found by staff members standing over Danforth after throwing a cup of hot water in his face, causing second-degree burns and blisters. When he was ordered to his room Cannon instead started punching Danforth.

The affidavit states Cannon then said, “Man, it felt so good to beat the (expletive) out of one of those rapo’s. I need to get back to D.O.C. so I can be around some real convicts, not these (expletive) chimos.(“Chimo” is a name commonly used to identify a child molester.)

Judge Who Presides Over Controversial Sex Offender Cases Kept a Gun in His Lap During Hearings

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1-7-2015 Texas:

Very few people knew much about the state's Office of Violent Sex Offender Management last spring when the agency quietly moved more than two dozen convicted sex offenders -- men who had already completed their prison sentences -- into a halfway house in Acres Homes without warning anyone living in the north Houston neighborhood.

The Chron's Anita Hassan and Mike Ward broke that story and ever since have been picking at the scab that is the state's controversial civil commitment program for sex offenders, which keeps convicts classified by the state as sexually violent predators, the so-called worst of the worst, confined in halfway houses, boarding homes, and jails -- supposedly to treat "behavioral abnormalities," a legal construct, not a medical condition, in order to safely integrate offenders back into society after they've done their penance.

A number of thorny issues, including questions of whether the program is even constitutional, have since surfaced in regards to how the state handles these offenders, who everyone agrees have already been convicted of heinous crimes. If the program, created by the Legislature in 1999, is meant to treat and transition offenders back into the community, why hasn't a single one successfully completed it in nearly 16 years? If offenders violate the program rules, they're charged with a third-degree felony and sent back to prison -- the Chron reports that over half of the 360 men who have been ordered into the program since 2001 have been charged with rules violations and cycled back into lockup.

At least six offenders have been sent back to prison for life, including Gary Edward Vines, who was charged with a rule violation for returning to his halfway house six minutes late because he'd been standing in line at a local clinic waiting to get his heart and blood pressure medication prescriptions refilled.

Another more recent thorn in the program's side has been Judge Michael Seiler, who presides over the 435th State District Court in Montgomery County, the state's only court specifically tasked with handling civil commitment cases. State Sen. John Whitmire, who chairs the senate's criminal justice committee, has been calling for an investigation into Seiler, and on Tuesday Whitmire confirmed that the state Commission on Judicial Conduct has opened an investigation into the judge's comments disparaging sex offenders who come before his court.

State to investigate judge over sex offender commitment cases

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1-6-2015 Texas:

AUSTIN – The state Commission on Judicial Conduct has launched an investigation into the courtroom actions of a Montgomery County judge following a Houston Chronicle investigation of Texas' civil commitment program for sex offenders, a state senator confirmed Tuesday.

Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, who pledged last week to seek an investigation into the actions of state District Judge Michael Seiler, said the commission confirmed to him "that they've opened an inquiry."

Executive Director Seana Willing said she could not comment on whether the commission is investigating the judge.

Confirmation of the commission's inquiry came as Seiler earlier in the day was removed from hearing three civil-commitment cases amid allegations that he is too biased to make impartial rulings. He previously had been recused from eight other civil commitment cases.

State attorneys representing the offenders who face civil commitment said they plan to file motions to remove Seiler from hearing all commitment cases.

Montgomery County district court judge dismissed from three additional civil commitment cases

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1-6-2015 Texas:

A Montgomery County district court judge was ordered off three additional civil commitment cases Tuesday by an appointed visiting judge.

The order granting the three motions for the recusal of 435th state District Court Judge Michael Seiler —presiding over the only court in the state to hear civil commitment cases for sexually violent offenders under Chapter 841 of the Texas Health and Safety Code — amounts to 11 cases the judge has been ordered to step down from since September. Ten of those cases involve civil commitment and the other is a criminal case.

State Counsel for Offenders attorneys representing respondents in the civil commitment cases argued again Tuesday that Seiler, through extra-judicious comments at political events and on campaign signs dating back to 2008, showed a personal bias and prejudice against sexually violent offenders.

Visiting Judge Joseph J. “Tad” Halbach Jr., from 333rd Civil Court in Harris County and appointed by administrative Judge Olen Underwood, granted the three motions in the civil commitment cases of Tommy Sells, Bryan Joseph Layton and Rudy Perez — all of which were handled in a single hearing Tuesday at the 284th state District Court in Conroe.

Seiler was dismissed from six other cases Dec. 11 by Senior Judge Ned Dean for either reasonably questionable impartiality or a personal bias against the subject matter or a party involved in the respective cases.

An order for Seiler’s recusal in the criminal violation of a civil commitment case against Joseph Calzada was granted Sept. 4 by Senior Judge Sharolyn Wood. The same attorney, Nancy Bunin, was again successful in having Seiler ordered off the James Richards civil commitment case Oct. 30.

Texas' sex offender program has long list of rules

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1-5-2015 Texas:

From sex offenders being moved into neighborhoods without notice, to Old West style banishments from the state, Texas' controversial civil commitment program has been under fire for the past year.

And one of the most hot-button issues with the program is the inability to get out. Released sex offenders have to follow a long list rules ranging from no contact with children, to being barred from having a post office box.

Now, the judge who has nearly sole jurisdiction over the program is facing increased scrutiny from the legislature. State Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said he will ask the state Commission on Judicial Conduct next week to investigate state District Judge Michael Seiler amid charges of bias and alleged improprieties in his court, as detailed in Mike Ward and Anita Hassan's report on HoustonChronicle.com.

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The following are examples of the rules, which program participants are required to agree to with a signature.

1) Offenders in Texas’ civil commitment program are required to abide by a host of rules relating to their confinement, monitoring, interactions, treatment and sexual activity. Violations of the rules can result in criminal charges, a jury trial and imprisonment.

2) I agree to submit to penile plethysmograph exams (a test to measure bloodflow to the penis) as directed by the treatment provider… I agree to comply with all requirements of the plethysmograph exam process. I agree to continue to take plethysmograph exams until it yields valid results. … I agree I will not use counter-measures while the PPG is being administered which could ultimately interfere with the validity of the instrument.

Texas judge in sex offender cases draws scrutiny

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1-5-2015 Texas:

CONROE, Texas | Sixteen times in the past four months, defense attorneys have petitioned to have him removed from hearing cases because of perceived bias. Eight times he has gotten the boot. Seven times in six years, appeals courts have found he abused his discretion in rulings.

But state District Judge Michael Seiler, who campaigned as "a prosecutor to judge the predators," remains the chief enforcer in Texas' troubled civil-commitment program, a treatment program designed to keep dangerous sex predators off the streets and from which no one has ever graduated.

Now the jurist who has publicly described the offenders who face him in court as "psychopaths" has become a flashpoint for criticism over whether his version of Texas justice has crossed the line.

Some attorneys and legislative leaders are suggesting that Seiler should be stripped of his role as sole arbiter of the sex-offender cases and are calling for sweeping reforms that could redefine the entire program.

"The statute needs to be changed so that all the cases do not happen in Montgomery County," said Barbara Corley, who retired last month from the State Counsel for Offenders, the state-funded office that represents convicts in court, where she once supervised civil-commitment hearings. "Everything shouldn't be concentrated in one judge."

Charge: Employee sneaks client cell phone in sex offender program

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1-4-2015 Minnesota:

MOOSE LAKE, Minn. -- A client at the Minnesota Sexual Offender Program in Moose Lake and an employee at the state-run facility were both charged with felony bribery, in a case that involves the client allegedly paying the employee $3,000 to smuggle in a cell phone.

Cell phones are considered contraband items at the facility and clients are prohibited from having them.

Client Arthur Senty-Haugen was charged with bribery of a public official in Carlton County Court last month and was transferred to the Carlton County Jail, where he is being held. His next court appearance is set for Jan. 14

Security counselor Andrew Barrett Rock, 26, of Moose Lake was charged with accepting a bribe as well as misconduct of a public officer, a gross misdemeanor, and will appear in court Jan. 12.

Newman's committee wishes were granted

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12-31-2014 Minnesota:

In November, Sen. Scott Newman of Minnesota District 18 said he wanted to focus on the budget and sex offender laws. With senate committee assignments rolling out, it appears he will have those opportunities.

Many senators are already spending more time at their offices, but the 2015 session is scheduled to begin on Jan. 6 and run until the third week of May.

Judiciary Committee

Until the 1980s, sex offenders served their time and were then released. Then, 25 years ago, Minnesota instituted civil commitment proceedings, which placed sex offenders in public or private hospitals for treatment if a judge rules they are at risk of offending again.

“The problem is that in 25 years, only one guy has been released,” Newman said. “(But) nobody wants to let sex offenders go so politically it’s a real hot potato.”

Early this year, U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank found the program unconstitutional. He urged lawmakers to make a change.

New York court frees sex offender from civil confinement

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See more about the case and full decision HERE

1-2-2015 New York:

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- New York's highest court ruled that authorities can't lock up a sex offender who committed no more crimes after leaving prison even though his counselors found him sarcastic, defensive and uncooperative with supervision on the outside.

At issue is court-ordered "civil confinement" once a convicted offender's criminal sentence is completed.

The Court of Appeals in its recent ruling said there isn't enough evidence that Michael M. is unable to control himself and likely to be dangerous to others unless locked in a secure facility.

The court, divided 5-to-1, said he should return instead to close supervision in the community.

"The testimony in this case tended to show only that respondent was struggling with his sexual urges, not that he was unable to control himself," Judge Eugene Pigott Jr. wrote. "The inability to control sexual misconduct would have to be shown to prove that respondent was a dangerous sex offender requiring confinement."

Sex offenders making transition from civil commitment

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See also: First graduates released from Iowa rehab program for sex offenders

1-2-2015 Iowa:

DES MOINES | Iowa's 1998 law allowing convicted sex offenders to be civilly committed for treatment and rehabilitation after completing their prison terms has matured to where six men have graduated from the program and have been released under court-approved supervision in Iowa communities.

Another 14 patients being housed in the Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders, or CCUSO, at the Cherokee Mental Health Institute in northwest Iowa are in transitional release phases of the highly structured inpatient treatment program for violent sexual predators that have served their prison sentences but in a separate civil trial were found likely to commit further sex offenses.

CCUSO patients are receiving secure treatment services from Iowa Department of Human Services staff, but are supervised upon their court-sanctioned discharge by the state Department of Corrections which contracts with community-based professionals in the state's judicial districts. In the various court-ordered releases, Iowa judges found that the state did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the six committed men should not be discharged under provisions of DHS release plans but in one case over-ruled a constitutional objection to any level of supervision.

Sex offenders are at the threshold

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1-2-2015 Iowa:

17 years after a law allowed Iowa to commit people who already served jail time, doors are starting to open

DES MOINES, Iowa – Iowa’s 1998 law allowing convicted sex offenders to be civilly committed for treatment and rehabilitation after completing their prison terms has opened the door for six men to graduate from the program and be released under court-approved supervision in Iowa communities.

Another 14 patients being housed in the Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders, or CCUSO, at the Cherokee Mental Health Institute in northwest Iowa are in transitional release phases of the highly structured inpatient treatment program for violent sexual predators that have served their prison sentences but in a separate civil trial were found likely to commit further sex offenses.

CCUSO patients are receiving secure treatment services from Iowa Department of Human Services staff, but are supervised upon their court-sanctioned discharge by the state Department of Corrections, which contracts with community-based professionals in the state’s judicial districts. In the various court-ordered releases, Iowa judges found that the state did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the six committed men should not be discharged under provisions of DHS release plans, but in one case over-ruled a constitutionally based objection to any level of supervision.

Addressing concerns

State corrections director John Baldwin said all agencies are complying with current law to maximize public safety, but some concerns have arisen as CCUSO patients released from involuntary civil commitment who are no longer on offender status locate in smaller communities that don’t have the treatment resources and law enforcement capabilities to track activities covered under release plans that are available in larger cities.

NY court frees sex offender from civil confinement

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1-2-2015 New York:

New York's highest court says authorities can't lock up a sex offender who committed no more crimes after leaving prison even though his counselors found him sarcastic, defensive and uncooperative with supervision.

At issue is court-ordered "civil confinement" once an offender's criminal sentence is completed.

The Court of Appeals (IN THE MATTER OF STATE OF NEW YORK v. MICHAEL M.) says there isn't enough evidence that Michael M. is unable to control himself and likely to be dangerous to others unless confined.

From Case: "In this Mental Hygiene Law article 10 proceeding, we hold that the evidence was legally insufficient to justify revoking respondent's strict and intensive supervision and imposing secure confinement. We base our holding on the distinction between a "sex offender requiring strict and intensive supervision" and a "dangerous sex offender requiring confinement," as defined in the relevant statutes."

Instead, the court says he should return to supervision in the community.

He pleaded guilty in 1997 to sexually abusing two young girls, spent a decade in state prison and two years free before he was ordered confined again.

New York has more than 300 sex offenders confined under a 2007 law and about 100 getting intensive supervision and treatment in communities. ..Source.. by SFGate.com

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State senator calls for inquiry into judge in sex offender cases

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1-1-2015 Texas:

Whitmire says state's program for sex offenders is jeopardized

The chairman of a legislative committee that oversees the state's troubled treatment program for violent sexual predators Wednesday called for an investigation of the Conroe judge who has virtually sole jurisdiction over the program.

State Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said he will ask the state Commission on Judicial Conduct next week to investigate state District Judge Michael Seiler amid charges of bias and alleged improprieties in his court.

In addition, Whitmire, a supporter of the program when it was enacted by the Legislature more than 15 years ago, said he intends to file legislation to strip Seiler of his position as the only judge in the state now specifically given jurisdiction over the so-called civil commitment cases.

Critics say Texas' sex crime rehab program aims to reimprison offenders

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12-28-2014 Texas:

Civil commitment program aimed at reimprisonment, critics maintain

Six minutes. That's how late Gary Edward Vines was returning to the east Houston halfway house where he was sent for supervision as a violent sex offender following his release from prison.

He had been stuck standing in line at a local clinic, waiting to get prescriptions for his heart and blood pressure medications refilled.

The Office of Violent Sex Offender Management, the state agency that supervises sex offenders in Texas' civil commitment program, saw it differently. Officials there said Vines was late because he ignored instructions to wait to fill the prescriptions. For that, he was arrested, charged with a third-degree felony and, following a criminal trial, sent back to prison for life.

Vines is among more than 180 sex offenders who have completed their sentences, been placed in civil commitment and then sent back to prison for violating rules in a program that is supposed to be providing them with treatment.